Page:Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute - Volume 1 (2nd ed.).djvu/23

Rh found in Otago, and now in the York Museum, of which the integuments and feathers are partly preserved, there was yet a single skeleton restored in such a manner as would be at all suited to the wants of the bird if it were alive. He therefore strongly urged the careful collection of specimens, and that those persons who discovered bones, if they did not consider themselves well acquainted with the subject, should leave them untouched until they could be exhumed by properly qualified collectors.

Dr. Hector, in proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, remarked that it was highly important to have obtained the expression of his opinions respecting the association of the Moa with the aborigines of this colony, as Mr. Mantell had arrived in this country well qualified for the task by previous training, and had enjoyed favourable opportunities as the first explorer of a large extent of the colony where these birds formerly abounded. The collections in the museums in Europe and America show how well he availed himself of those opportunities. He (Dr. Hector) understood Mr. Mantell to incline to the opinion that the Moa owed its destruction to a race of aborigines different in their habits and savage attainments from the Maoris of the present day, though perhaps having the same origin; but while agreeing in this, he stated that he did not attach much importance to the alleged absence of greenstone, and other implements of an advanced stage, from the early Maori ovens; and explained how the use of chert flakes would naturally suggest itself, as they would be abundantly formed when chert stones were heated and quenched with water in the process of cooking according to the Maori fashion. It would seem as if, when one of these flakes had a convenient shape, such as a knife, cleaver, or spear-head, it was trimmed and sharpened in the same manner as a gun flint, rather than cast away when the edge became defective, and that a race advanced far beyond such rude works of art might yet find it convenient under certain circumstances to employ them. Dr. Hector alluded to the profusion of Moa eggshells in the ovens of the interior, which showed that the eggs must have been prized as food, and that their consumption must have soon led to the extinction of the birds.

Mr. Travers remarked, with regard to the origin of the aborigines by whom the Moas were exterminated, that he considered them to be a distinct race, now represented by the Morioris of the Chatham Islands. He impressed on the attention of the meeting the important field which New Zealand offered for ethnological research, and related as a circumstance requiring explanation, that in a circular pit in the Waikato, a number of human skeletons were found in an erect position, arranged round the side, each with a block of wood on its head, and hoped that some one would investigate the matter.